Jay's Industrial & Adventurous

I love that my small house is a complete product of my design and construction. When I moved into this 615 square foot industrial space, the smell of moth balls and the itching of fleas scared away many. In a few days and with three rolls of masking tape, I mapped out a multi-dimensional floor plan for a three-bedroom apartment. Six to seven weeks later I took the pictures posted in this contest. This is truly a space I can call home and gladly share with those friends and visitors that have stayed with me since its beginnings. I love the raw feel of industrially abused space with concrete floors, brick walls, and old wooden beams. Building clean, straight lines among the imperfections inherent in old industrial materials provides for an adventurous living environment.

Biggest Challenge of Living in a Small Space

The biggest challenge was working with limited budget, light and space in a basement apartment. I visited local second hand building material supply yards where I salvaged everything, including but not limited to: windows, lighting, tempered glass, insulation, old wood beams, etc. In addition to the 12 street level windows, I constructed the interior walls with an additional 8 windows to allow light and air to swim and pour over all the walls of the apartment. Exploiting the apartment's 12 foot ceilings, I lofted all three beds as well as an office. The added layers were also designed to demand a level of physical interaction from inhabitants. Climbing up and down ladders, tip toeing and jumping from stairs, shuffling around the corners through the tight hall; these all result in a fit by living concept that sparks childhood memories of playing at the park. As a result the space is more than livable, it is enjoyable, unique and exciting!

If I am the Grand Prize winner of Small Cool, the item(s) or project(s) from my home design wishlist that I'd like to spend my winnings on are:

If won, I would spend the prize money on having a resin floor poured on the existing concrete floor, which is suffering from years of heavy use from the time when the building was used industrially. A resin floor would maintain the hard industrial look, but would fill the many depressions that tend to collect dust and dirt. Every step counts to a better home! Thanks for your support.